Year of Snake slithers to HSU as dinner celebrates Chinese New Year

Eric J. Shelton/Reporter-News
Fei Gao gives shrimp to his son, 2-year-old James Gao, shrimp during a Chinese New Year celebration dinner in the Hardin-Simmons University’s Johnson Building on Saturday. The dinner was sponsored by HSU’s International Student Fellowship.

Terry Minami is grateful that, according to the Chinese zodiac, 2013 is the Year of the Snake.

One of the last-minute details for Saturday’s fundraising dinner by Hardin-Simmons University’s International Student Fellowship, for which Minami is the adviser, was making origami snakes for each table.

“They’re a lot easier to make than rabbits,” said Minami, assistant to the dean of university libraries, referring to 2011, the Year of the Rabbit.

This year’s dinner, in the HSU Johnson Building, celebrated the Chinese New Year, which was Feb. 10. The Chinese New Year is celebrated on the second new moon after the winter solstice. In 2014, Chinese New Year will be Feb. 1.

The club’s dinner usually has been a potluck affair with students bringing dishes from their home countries. This year, the club settled on a menu of four-season appetizer, beef noodle soup, Chinese dark sauce chicken, broccoli and straw mushroom, egg foo yung, chicken fried rice and sweet red bean soup.

“Hopefully, it will be better with people responsible for certain dishes,” said Ethan Tan, a senior political science major from Malaysia and vice president of the club.

Shawn Chin, a senior communication major from Malaysia and the club’s president, likened the Chinese New Year celebration to Thanksgiving in America rather than New Year’s Day.

“It’s more of a family celebration,” he said. “You would have relatives from both sides of the family. It’s a joyous occasion.”

This year’s dinner drew about 100 students and faculty who enjoyed the cuisine and listened to pianist Sherry Dou, an HSU graduate student from China.

Aside from raising money for the International Student Fellowship, the dinner helps illuminate Asian culture to Western students, according to Chin and Tan. Tan said he thought students coming to the West from Asia were probably better prepared for a new culture than the other way around.